Sunday, April 22, 2007

Earth Day 2007

Lately there have been different blogs and posting groups who have debated the tragedy at VT. Imagine my shock when a fellow pagan asked if the rest of the pagans in a specific group felt that it was okay for Legal Immigrants, with Legal Green cards, (Permenent Residents) to have the ability to buy guns.

It's interesting when you really stop to think it through. Over 200 years ago, we were the immigrants. The founding fathers and mothers of this country came here for a variety of reasons. When England taxed us unreasonable, when England passed laws about who could own what, say what, practice what religion, we rebelled. We were NOT citizens of this country, we'd come here looking for a new start, a new beginning, Freedom.

We won that war.

Then, we turned around and passed laws telling the Native Americans, the indigenous peoples of this land, what they could believe, what language they could speak, what they could and could not say, how they could live, what they could eat, where they were to die, how their children would be educated, oh yeah, and passed laws saying they could not own guns. They had no recourse to our laws, we made sure of that, and just to be completely sure that we would win, we then made it impossbile for them to have the tools necessary to fight back, to rebel,to have a revolution to protect their culture, their children, their religions, all the reasons we fought the Revolutionary War and all the reasons we wrote the Constitution of the United States.


Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that there should have been better safeguards in place to make sure that this mentally ill young man could not legally obtain a gun. I also realize that if he'd been totally intent on his plan, he would have just bought one illegally.

I'm tired of people reacting in fear, and I'm tired of the government using that as a means to STEAL OUR FREEDOMS AND RIGHTS.

So, today is Earth day. This is supposed to be a day in which we all think about how we treat this planet we live on. I'd like to suggest we take it a step further.

How are we responsible to everyone, every person, every animal, every plant, within our communities?

Oh Great Spirit of our
Ancestors, I raise
my pipe to you.
To your messengers the four winds, and
to Mother Earth who provides
for your children.
Give us the wisdom to teach our children
to love, to respect, and to be kind
to each other so that they may grow
with peace of mind
Let us learn to share all good things that
you provide for us on this Earth.

--------------Native American prayer

Isn't it time we tried to walk in Beauty, in Harmony, and in Balance?

Global Astrology week of April 23rd

I freely admit having to struggle with understanding what they mean by all this. Some of it is immediatly clear, and some of it not so much. This is one of those areas in which I"m trying to increase my knowledge, so, in the upcoming months, you can expect to see more there.


From Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology website:

Sun in Taurus - Earth is on the Return

by Robert Wilkinson

Finally! The drought of no planets in Earth signs just ended this morning when the Sun returned to Taurus. Except for a few days over the next few months, we're finally past the long period we've been in where planets were very infrequently in Earth signs. Earth will be more of a constant factor between now and 2025, except for a few days in the near future.

I discussed some of this in Astrology Imbalances in March 2007 - There Are No Planets in Earth Signs Right Now where there's another link to why this is important, and how it affects all of us. It has to do with the proportion of Elements at any given moment, which is the atmosphere of how Spirit, Mind, Feelings, and Matter are interrelated, affecting the collective consciousness as well as the collective unconscious.

Since Taurus is the sign symbolizing how we can enjoy our time here to a greater degree, it's a month to allow the light of this gentle, stable, and peaceful sign to permeate our being and show us the way to authentic, enjoyable self expression, "gentling down" into a calm stability the recent agitations of Aries. I'll post the coming week's trends soon.

© Copyright 2007 Robert Wilkinson

April 20, 2007

For this and other interesting articles check out their webiste:

http://www.aquariuspapers.com/astrology/2007/04/

Monday, April 2, 2007

Government must deal with greenhouse gases: US Supreme Court

I know I've been away for awhile, I volunteered to admin one forum, moderate another, on top of my class load. So, please forgive the absence.

With Spring upon us, I found this article, and it just makes me want to dance.

excerpt, to read full article, follow the link:



"The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency must consider greenhouse gases as pollutants, in a blow to the White House.

"Because greenhouse gases fit well within the Clean Air Act's capacious definition of 'air pollutant' we hold that EPA has the statutory authority to regulate the emission of such gases from new motor vehicles," the court ruled.

Led by Massachusetts, a dozen states along with several US cities and environmental groups went to the courts to determine whether the agency had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emissions.

"The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized," said judge John Paul Stevens as the ruling was carried by five votes in favor to four against.

The Republican administration of US President George W. Bush has fiercely opposed any imposition of binding greenhouse limits on the nation's industry.

Environmentalists have alleged that since Bush came to office in 2001 his administration has ignored and tried to hide looming evidence of global warming and the key role of human activity in climate change."